The 6th Liar
by germanshepherd123
Summary: Alexandra Queen, younger sister of the infamous Oliver Queen, is the 6th liar in the group. Join her and rest of the girls as they try to find out who the hell A is and what it/he/she wants from them. Hearts are broken, people killed, secrets revealed, love is found and liquor is spilt WARNING: Self harm, drinking and smoking are all included in this story
1. Short Summary

So this is sort of an arrow crossover fan fiction with PLL there is mostly only going to be mentioning of arrow characters, at least in the beginning. I'm not going to include the hood in this story until season 6 and 7 for the 5-year jump.

Name: Alexandra Queen

DOB: July 24, 1987

Siblings: Thea and Oliver Queen

Alex is 2 years younger then Oliver and 8 years older than Thea

Parents: Moira and Robert Queen

Description: Brown hair and Green eyes

Her parents are letting her stay in Rosewood by herself since she wants to try and live a normal life without the paparazzi following her every move thanks to Oliver's troublemaking habits.


	2. Chapter 2

Rosewood, Pennsylvania four girls were inside a barn with Don't trust me by 3OH!3 blasting, passing around a large red cup filled with a clear liquid. Laughing at the faces one another makes as they sip the alcohol.

"Whoa what happened?" Hanna asks when the lights suddenly turn off and the music ceases.

"Relax guys it's just the storm." Spencer says as she starts to light some candles. They all freeze when they hear a rattling sound coming from outside.

"Something's out there." A brunette with red stripes in her hair, Aria, says. They all turn and look towards the door when it slowly starts to open.

"Guys." Hanna says shakily as they all stand up and walking closer to the door. The four girls gasp when they hear the sound of glass breaking and immediately stop in their tracks. They wait a moment before going back to walking towards the door.

"Gotcha!" A blonde girl yells as she jumps into the barn making the girls scream. A brunette girl with green eyes steps out behind the blonde, both girls laughing.

"That was so not funny!" Spencer says as she waits for her heart rate to return back to normal.

"I thought it was hilarious." A brunette dressed in an old sweatshirt and cotton shorts says as she walks into the barn, plopping down on the couch.

"Alex seems to think so." Alison says as she takes a seat, the rest of the girl's giggle as they return back to their seats.

"Ali, did you download the new Beyoncé?" Hanna asks

"Not yet." Allison says sadly

"I'm loving her new video." Emily says

"Maybe a little too much, Em." Allison teases making the other girl laugh slightly, Alex rolls her eyes at the blonde's teasing and quickly changes the subject to get the focus off the swimmer.

"So are we drinking or what?" Alex asks as she looks around at the other girls, Allison smirks at the brunette girl next to her before handing the glass to her. Alex matches the smirk, up for the challenge and quickly takes a few gulps of the liquid, loving the burning sensation it leaves in her throat.

"Careful Alex, take too much and you'll tell us all your secrets." Spencer teases making them all laugh as Alex passes the cup to Aria.

"Friends share secrets. Its what keeps us close." Allison says smiling at them all "Drink up."

_LATER THAT NIGHT: _

All the girls are asleep with the exception of Allison and Alex who are silently making out in the corner of the couch. Allison pulls away first with a sigh and curls into the brunette's side.

"I've missed this." Allison says as she takes one of the other girl's hand. Alex lets out a soft hum, already feeling the effects of the alcohol. She watches as the blonde gently moves up the sleeve of her sweatshirt and gently traces the raised skin with the pad of her thumb. "How long has it been?" the blonde asks seeing a mark that looks new.

"3 days." Alex says quietly as she reaches over with her other hand to pull her sleeve down, not liking Allison see her scars. Allison bites her lip sadly and turns around so she's facing the brunette who refuses to look at her. The blonde gently pulls the other girls chin until she's looking into the other girl's teary green eyes.

"Promise that you wont do this to yourself anymore." Alison says sternly but gently

"Allison-"

"Promise me." She interrupts her blue eyes now becoming filled with tears and a hint of fear.

"I can't promise you something that I don't know I will be able to keep."

"Then promise me that you will at least try." She says, Alex stares into her bright blue orbs confused by the fear she saw in them. This wasn't the first time they talked about this, it usually ended up in a screaming match with Allison storming out in tears. Both of them angry and upset but she never saw fear in the blonde's eyes.

"I promise." Alex says, she watches as Allison breathes out a sigh of relief as if some weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

"Thank you." Allison says before leaning in for another kiss, one that leaves them both breathless. "You should get some sleep." Allison says smirking when she sees the other girl yawn.

"Maybe…but I rather keep doing this." Alex says with her own smirk as she pulls the blonde in for another make out session. Allison smiles into the brunette's lips and gently pulls away.

"Well I need to sleep." Allison says making the other girl roll her eyes

"Spoil Sport." She pouts making the blonde chuckle at the other girl's antics. Alex sighs as she lays down on the floor so Ali can have the rest of the couch, the alcohol in her system making it easy to fall asleep. Just as she's about to drift off she feels something soft and warm touch her forehead and Alison whisper her love for the other girl in her ear before she's engulfed in darkness.

That was the last time she or anyone else had ever seen Alison Dilaurentis.


	3. Chapter 3

After Ali disappeared the five girls seemingly separated, Hanna became the new 'it' girl along with Mona, Spencer buried herself in school work, Emily in swimming while Aria and Alex left Rosewood. The five girls didn't see one another again until a year later.

Emily, Spencer, Hanna and Aria all sit in front of the casket, staring at it in sadness and disbelief.

"Poor Ali." Emily says

"Can you believe what a scene this is?" Hanna asks

"Alison would have loved it." Aria adds

"Popular in life and death." A voice says making all the girls look up to see a tanned skinned girl standing there wearing a black dress that stops mid-thigh with heels and a leather jacket.

"Alex?" Emily asks

"When did you get back?" Aria asks as they all scoot down to make room for their other friend. Alex lets out a tired sigh as she sits down.

"Last night… Just in time to hear the news." She says sadly

Hanna seeing the sad look on Alex's face takes a flask out of her purse and hands it to the other girl. Alex takes one look at it before accepting it with a small smile as if to say thank you.

The girls all tense and look towards Aria when her phone goes off

"Anyone we know?" Alex asks as she takes a sip out of the flask before handing it back to Hanna.

"No. Just my mom." Aria says sounding a little too relieved. Seeing the looks on the other girls faces she continues "Emily and I aren't the only ones who got messages from A are we?"

Before any of the girls can answer the question they are interrupted by everyone whispering to one another. Spencer turns around to see what caused the commotion to see someone she never thought she'd see at Alison's funeral.

"Oh my god." Spencer gasps "Its Jenna." Hearing the girls name, the girls all turn to look at the girl in question who is being guided to her seat. The girls all look at the blind girl in guilt, except for Alex whose glaring daggers at her even though she can't see them. When Mrs. DiLaurentis makes her way to their row they all turn back around.

"Did you see that Jenna Marshall was here?" Mrs. DiLarentis asks "I didn't realize she and Ali were friends."

"They weren't." Alex says gruffly as she looks on sadly as the minister begins.

"The lord giveth and the lord taketh away."

After the ceremony the girls walk out of the church, Aria and Hanna in the front with their arms linked together while Alex, Emily and Spencer follow behind. The girls all walk towards the parking lot where their cars are when they are stopped by a blonde man in a suit.

"Alexandra. Emily. Spencer. Aria and Hanna." The man says

"Do we know you?" Alex asks as they all unlink arms

"I'm Detective Wilden." he says as he pulls out his card from his coat pocket and hands it to Spencer "I understand you were all good friends with the victim."

"Yeah we were." Spencer says

"I'm gonna need to talk to each of you." Wilden says

"We talked to the police when Alison went missing." Alex says sharply annoyed that the detective has the audacity to ask them questions when they haven't even buried Alison yet.

"And I intend to go over every one of your statements." Wilden says smugly "This is no longer a missing person's investigation. It's a murder." He says "Rest assured, I will find out what happened that summer." He says before giving them a smug smile and walking away with Alex glaring at his retreating form.

Once he's far away from them the girl all turn to one another

"Do you think he know about-?" Aria asks

"No. How could he?" Hanna says, as all their phones go off simultaneously. They all look at each other before looking down at their phones.

"Oh my god." Aria says

"Son of a bitch." Alex curses

"Its from-" Hanna says confused

"I got one too." Emily says

"I'm still here, bitches…" Spencer reads

"And I know everything. A." They all read together freaked out as to who this A person could be.

Later that night the girls all sit in the Apple Rose grille catching up, remembering Alison, and trying to figure out who the hell A is as well has why Jenna was at Alison's funeral. Spencer, Alex and Emily on one side of the table while Hanna and Aria are on the other.

"Why was Jenna there?" Aria asks

"I guess she's back." Spencer says

"That cop acted like we were suspects or something." Hanna says

"Do you think we looked guilty?" Emily asks

"Why would we? We haven't done anything wrong." Aria says

"Except lie about the Jenna thing." Alex says

"We promised we'd never bring up the Jenna thing again, remember?" Spencer whispers nervously "It never happened."

"Have you found a way to forget?" Aria asks as Hanna pulls out her flask and begins to unscrew it "I still wake up sometimes in the middle of the night."

"It was an accident." Spencer pushes, Alex sighs before motioning for Hanna to pass her the flask after she's done pouring some into her drink. Once she feels there's enough alcohol in her drink she passes it back to Hanna.

"Its medicinal." Hanna says to the old man whose staring at the two girls disapprovingly. When the man gives her a doubting look, Alex rolls her eyes and turns around in her seat so she's facing the man.

"We're on our period." She deadpans making the man blush and look away from the girls. Alex smiles triumphantly and turns back around to see Hanna smirking, Emily blushing and Aria and Spencer looking at her amused.

"I don't get it." Emily says "How does A know something about me only Alison knew?"

"Ali knew all of our secrets, but…we never knew any of hers." Aria says, the girls all turn towards Alex who was drinking her drink like a fish does water.

"What?" Alex asks with a raised eyebrow having not really paid attention to the conversation.

"Did you and Ali ever share secrets?" Hanna asks

"Of course she is- was my best friend." Alex says sadly, she's vaguely aware of Emily's hand slipping into hers underneath the table.

"Did you know any of hers?" Aria asks

"No…Ali never told me anything." She lies, not needing Ali to come back and haunt her ass if she spilled what few secrets she knew.

"I knew some." Spencer says not looking up from her tea, making everyone turn to her shocked. Alex raises an eyebrow at the girl, not knowing that Ali ever told her anything.

"Go on." Aria pushes

"Talk." Hanna pushes

"I can't." Spencer says

"Spence! No, you are not gonna drop a bomb like that and just clam up!" Aria says exasperated

"Yea you have to tell us now." Alex agrees, curious as to what she knows.

"She'd so kill me if I told you." Spencer says

"She's dead." Hanna deadpans, making Alex wince. Emily gently squeezes Alex's hand underneath the table trying to offer the other girl comfort.

"Ali was seeing someone that summer." Spencer finally let's out, making Alex tense slightly wondering if Spencer knew it was her who Ali was seeing.

"Well, why didn't she want us to know?" Aria asks

"He was an older boy and he had a girlfriend." Spencer says simply, hearing the words ' _older boy_ ' making Alex freeze in place. She wasn't the only one Ali was seeing over the summer. She's snapped out of her trance by the feeling of Emily's thumb lightly trace over her knuckles.

"Who was it?" Alex asks

"She never told me his name." Spencer says

"Okay that's only half the secret." Hanna says

"Its more than you ever got from her." Spencer says defensively

"How is it that Ali told us nothing and we told her everything?" Aria asks in disbelief

"Because she made us feel like we were part of something special." Emily says simply

"We were." Alex says quietly

"I miss that." Aria says sadly

"Me too." Spencer agrees while Alex nods her head.

"I miss Ali." Emily says, Alex gives the girl a small smile and squeezes her hand gently. While using her free hand to reach up and grab her drink.

"I can't believe you still wear that." Hanna says seeing the old worn out bracelet on the brunette's wrist. Alex looks down at her wrist where the bracelet is and shrugs.

"Ali still wears…wore hers." She says tiredly "God its going to take me forever to get used to this."

"When Ali didn't come home that night, I knew something terrible must have happened, but there was always some part of me that imagines someday she'd just show up" Spencer says sadly

"Yeah." Aria agrees "I used to think that maybe she'd just… run off with some guy."

"She was laying on a beach somewhere." Alex adds smiling slightly at the thought

"Or getting a tan out by the pool with that hot life guard." Hanna adds

"Ooh yea…what was his name?" Emily asks her hand still linked with Alex's underneath the table.

"Who cares?" Hanna says before looking towards the ceiling dramatically and saying "Save me!" making at the girls laugh, the thought of Alison somewhere else and happy rather than think about what really happened to their friend.

The girl's laughter ends when they hear the café door open and the sound of tapping fill the room. They all turn to see Jenna walk in and take a sit at the counter. The girls all look at one another before they silently begin to pack up their stuff. Emily gives Alex's hand a final squeeze before she gets up and heads for the door along with the rest of the girls.

Once outside they all cast each other one last look before walking in separate directions. Alex climbs into her Jeep Renegade starts to drive around, not wanting to go back home to an empty house that holds to many memories. She rounds the corner and begins to slow down when she sees a lone figure walking down the street, catching a glimpse of the person's face she pulls over.

"Emily?" Alex calls through her rolled down window, the jock in question turns to face the girl

"Hey." Emily says shyly with a small smile, making Alex's heart flutter.

"Are you walking home?" Alex asks, trying to ignore the flutter in her chest as she mentally berates herself for asking such a stupid question when that's obviously what the swimmer is doing.

"Ummm yea…I don't have a car."

"I can give you a lift if you want?"

"No I couldn't ask you to do that, you live in the opposite direction of me and really I like walking…its great exercise." The other girl babbles making Alex smile slightly, finding it cute.

"Well then I guess it's a good thing you didn't ask me then." Alex says with a smirk as she unlocks her doors "Come on. Get in." she urges, her smirk turning into a full blown smile when the swimmer walks over and climbs into the car.

"Thank you." Emily says once she's inside

"No problem besides with a murder on the loose its to dangerous for pretty girls like you to be walking around so late at night." She says shooting the other girl a wink, smirking when she sees Emily's face heat up in a blush.

"So umm why weren't you heading towards your house when you picked me up?" Emily asks once she gets control over her blush. Alex shrugs, not turning away from the road.

"Didn't feel like heading home yet, so I thought I'd just drive around for awhile." Alex says simply as she turns into Emily's neighborhood

"How come?"

"It's a big empty house with too many memories." She says as she pulls in front of the Field's home "Here you are." Alex says as she turns to the swimmer.

"Thanks again for the ride." Emily says, Alex nods her head as if to say your welcome and watches as Emily gets out of the car and starts to head towards her house.

Emily stops in the middle of her street, halfway to her house, before turning around and walking back to the car. Seeing her walking back Alex rolls down the window.

"Do you want to stay the night?" Emily asks, Alex raises an eyebrow at the athlete in surprise "I just mean that…I don't really want to be alone tonight either."

"Yea. Sure." Alex says with a quick nod of her head "Are you sure your mom won't mind?"

"My mom likes you. Besides she's asleep anyway." Emily says, smiling at the nervous look on the girl's face. Once Alex is out of the car, Emily takes her hand and guides her to her house and up to her bedroom.

Emily watches in amusement as the normal badass, leather jacket wearing girl who usually oozes confidence, fidgets nervously in her room. Finally taking pity on the girl she hands her a pair of pajamas

"Heres some clothes you can borrow." Emily says, Alex nods her head in thanks before walking further into the room and starts to undress. Emily's eyes widen in surprise as her face beats red. "Wh-What are you doing?" the swimmer stutters out.

"I'm changing." Alex states innocently as she turns around to face the athlete dressed only in the shorts Emily gave her and her bra with the night shirt in her hand. Emily's face darkens as her eyes rake over Alex's toned stomach.

"I-I'm going to ummm…. Change in the bathroom." The athlete stutters before practically running out of the room. Alex smirks as she pulls the shirt on before crawling into the bed. She lays down on her back with her hands folded behind her head as she stares up at the white ceiling, waiting for Emily to get out of the bathroom.

She always knew Emily had feelings for her, and she won't deny that she always found Emily to be extremely attractive, but at the time she was so far in love with Alison that she didn't see anything else. And now Alison was gone, she's been gone for a whole year. The only thing is that Alex is now finally excepting that she's truly gone, after they found her body. So now maybe its time to let go and try to open up to someone else like she had with Alison. She just hopes that someone would be Emily.

Alex was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear Emily walk out of the bathroom and into the room.

"Hey." Emily says making the other girl jump "Everything okay?"

"Yeah…yeah. I'm just tired." Alex says with a sigh, Emily nods her head in understanding as she shuts off the lights she climbs into the bed.

"Night." Alex says quietly

"Night." Emily says back, a few minutes later the swimmer hears the others girls breathing even out. Emily closes her eyes to try and get herself to fall asleep as well when she suddenly feels something warm press against her back.

The swimmer blushes when she feels Alex's arm snake around her abdomen and the other girl's face bury itself into her neck. Emily smiles slightly as she scoots back further so she's pressed closer to Alex's body, her smile widens when she feels the other girls arm immediately tighten around her.

Emily was just about to drift off when the sound of her phone buzzing wakes her up, turning her head slightly to make sure Alex is still asleep, Emily slowly leans forward, being careful as to not wake the other girl, as she grabs her phone to see that she has a text from an unknown number.

' **Aww poor sweet Emily has a crush. Just remember who her arms used to be around. -A'**

Emily's eyes widen in shock as she looks around her room, wondering how this A person could see them if they were on the second floor with the lights were out. Turning her phone off she gently lies back down in bed, focusing on the rise and fall of Alex's chest against her back rather than the text message. With that she allows herself to drift off into a dreamless sleep in the safety of her hopefully-later-on-more-than-friend's arms.

_THE NEXT MORNING: _

Emily wakes up to a stream of sunlight hitting her in the face, she smiles when she remembers the night before. Her smile soon turns into a look of confusion when she doesn't feel Alex in bed with her anymore. Frowning she sits up and looks around the room to see Alex's clothes from the other day along with the ones she had given her last night gone, along with the girl in question. Letting out a disappointed sigh, Emily gets up and begins to get ready for the day. By the time she makes it down stairs she's showered, hair done, and dressed in a yellow long sleeve shirt, a white skirt that stops mid thigh and sneakers.

"Mom?" Emily calls as she walks into the kitchen hearing no answer she walks further inside. She walks over to the kitchen counter top, seeing a note along with a pot of coffee.

'Em

Sorry I left without saying goodbye I couldn't stand to wake you up. Hope you don't mind I made myself some coffee, I left enough for you it should still be hot by the time you wake up. Also thanks for last night, it was fun and we should do it again sometime ;)

-Alex

P.S. your mom told me to tell you that she went to her yoga class and she'll be back later.'

Emily smiles down at the letter before walking over to the coffee pot, which was still hot, and poured herself some in her favorite purple mug before grabbing her 'How to Kill a Mocking Bird' book and walking outside to her front porch, figuring it was a nice time of day to catch up on her English reading while enjoying her coffee.

Emily was only outside for a few minutes before she saw Maya walking up to her porch.

"So…Are you okay?" Maya asks as she sits down next to the swimmer, Seeing Emily's face she continues "That…was a dumb question. Of course you're not okay." She says "I um…I thought about going to the funeral, but I…I didn't know her, and I didn't…feel right."

"No I…I understand." Emily says

"Can I have a sip?" Maya asks nodding towards Emily's mug

"Sure. Do you want your own?"

"I'd rather share yours." Maya says, as she places her hand over Emily's when she takes the cup from her. Maya sighs as she leans back into the bench and takes a sip of the coffee.

"You look tired." Emily notes seeing the barely noticeable dark circles under her makeup.

"Haven't gotten much sleep." Maya says as she hands the mug back "My mom found another one of Alison's boxes in the basement. There were pictures of her in my room. Her room. She's everywhere." Maya says "And that poster."

"Someone should take those posters down." Emily says "It hurts way too much to look at them. Especially Alex." The swimmer says sadly, she can only begin to imagine how Alex feels about having to see her dead best friend's face everywhere she turns, a friend she was in love with.

"Emily…I'm so sorry." Maya says as she lays a hand on the athlete's shoulder trying to bring her some sort of comfort. Emily turns to look at her new found friend only to find herself soon wrapped up in a hug, which is soon broken when Pam returns home.

"Is everything alright?" Pam asks concerned, the sound of her voice making the two girls break apart.  
"Mom this is Maya St. Germain." Emily introduces

"Oh, Maya. Hi." Pam says as she holds out her hand for the other girl to shake

"Hi!" Maya says happily and pulls the shocked older woman into a hug, Emily smiles slightly as she stands up as well.

"Well I would say welcome to the neighborhood, but…" Pam says

"Its kind of hard when your backyard is a crime scene." Emily finishes

"Still?" Pam asks surprised

"Its where people come to be close to her." Maya explains "They light candles and leave teddy bears. I get it, but it still feels like her house." Pam nods her head in understanding

"I can understand how you're not sleeping." Emily says

"You know, Maya, why don't you just spend a few days with us?" Pam asks "You could sleep in Emily's room." Also noticing the rings underneath her eyes. Maya turns to Emily with an excited grin and thanks Pam. Emily's smile is a little less exciting having hoped she could have somehow gotten Alex to spend the night again.

_AT SCHOOL: _

Alex walks to her locker and quickly pulls out the books she'll need for her classes, feeling eyes on her she turns around to see Emily staring at her with a small smile. Alex sends her a smirk and a wink watching in amusement as the other girl blushes and looks away. Alex chuckles and closes her locker, she goes to walk to her class but stops when someone comes over the intercom.

"Will the following students please come to the office. Emily Fields, Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin and Alexandra Queen." The girls all stare at one another wondering why they are all being called before they start to head towards the office. Aria starts to dig through her purse when she hears her phone go off.

"Wait." Aria says once she sees her phone making the rest of the girl's stop "Its from A"

"Dead girls walking" Aria reads, Alex rolls her eyes as she continues her way towards the office

"Well that's a real confidence booster." She says sarcastically, the other girls all look at one another before they quickly follow after their friend.

Hanna, Aria, Spencer and Emily are all squeezed into the tiny couch in the principle's office while Alex sits on the arm by Emily. All of them watching Wilden walk around the office reading their statements from the night Ali disappeared.

"So let's see…you thought you heard her scream." Wilden says pointing to Spencer

"I-I said that yeah." Spencer says nervously

"And when you four woke up in the barn, Alison was gone, and so was Spencer."

"Yes, I woke up before them, and I realized Ali was missing so…"

"So you went looking for her." Wilden finishes for her as he sits on the principles desk

"That's what happened." Spencer says

"I got that." Wilden says, Alex rolls her eyes "So what's up? Was this a slumber party or…?"

"Is this an interrogation?" Alex asks "Because if it is then I'd hope you know that you aren't allowed to question us without an adult present considering that we are minors."

"Just a routine follow-up." Wilden says

"Well your routine follow-up sure as hell seems like 21 questions that you already know the answers to." Alex snaps, Wilden smirks but continues with his questions.

"Why did you guys all fall asleep?" Wilden asks

"I guess we were tired." Aria says

"Tired? Really." Wilden says unconvinced

"Yes that's what happens when your tired you go to sleep. Are you sure that you are a detective because it seems, to put it in better words, my sister could come up with better questions then you can and she's 8 years old."

"Alex…" Emily says warningly, she places her hand on the brunette's knee to try and calm her down only to have it brushed off when the other girl jumps to her feet so she's now standing in front of them.

"No. He's asking us pointless questions that we already answered! This helps nothing with Ali's case and all we're doing is talking in circles." Alex says frustrated, as she stares at her friends who were staring at her as if waiting for her to start throwing punches, before turning to Wilden with a glare that could kill "Call me when you actually having questions we haven't already answered a thousands times over but until then talk to my lawyer." She says hotly before grabbing her bag and storming out.

Alex briskly walks down the hallway, luckily everyone is still in class otherwise she would have snapped on the first person who dared look at her the wrong way. Alex storms into the bathroom, which is luckily empty, locking the door behind her and tossing her bag in the corner. She begins to pace the bathroom floor before letting out a cry of both anger and anguish and punching the mirror, making it crack.

Alex stares at herself in the broken mirror, watching as tears make their way down her face. Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, once she's calm she quickly wipes away her tears only to notice that her hand is covered in dried blood from when she punched the mirror. She quickly splashes some water on her face and cleans off all the dried blood from her hand.

As soon as she's done she hears her phone go off, looking down at her phone to see a text from an unknown number in the mess from the numerous texts from the rest of the girls asking where she was and if she was okay.

' **Better keep that temper under control. You never know what could happen. –A'**

Alex glares down at her phone, hating that this mysterious person knows so much about her past and she has no idea who it is. Locking her phone, she ignores the texts from the girls as the bell rings, grabbing her bag she walks out of the bathroom and heads to the cafeteria where she knows everyone would be.

Alex enters the cafeteria and quickly makes a bee line for her friends

"Hey are you okay?" Emily asks worriedly

"Yea where were you?" Aria asks

"You left us in there with detective creepy." Hanna says

"I just had to cool down is all." Alex says with a shrug, as she reaches over and takes a frie off Emily's tray from across the table.

"What happened to your hand?" Emily asks as she gently cradles the other girls hand in hers.

"Like I said…needed to cool down." Alex says as she pulls her hand out of Emily's grasp. Emily tries to mask the hurt she feels when sees Alex start to close up on her again. "So um what happened after I left?" Alex asks wanting to change the subject.

"Aria thinks he knows we're lying." Spencer says

"Lying is not a crime." Hanna says

"It is when you're giving false statements to the police." Spencer informs "its called obstruction of justice."

"We lied about drinking. The truth is we don't know jack about what happened to Ali." Alex says

"We also know about someone who might have wanted to hurt her." Spencer says

"We should have told the police the truth about Jenna's accident the night it happened." Emily says guiltily

" _I_ wanted to, remember?" Hanna says

"We had a chance to do more than just tell the truth." Aria says "We had a chance to stop Ali and you." Aria says looking over at Alex who rolls her eyes, sure she feels guilty about what happened but what's done is done, you can't change the past.

"Well it happened." Alex says with finality "And telling the police now about what happened to Jenna isn't going to make her see again."

"Alex is right. It'll just ruin our lives." Spencer says, hearing a tapping fill the cafeteria Alex turns to see Jenna walk in carrying a lunch tray.

"Oh my god." Hanna groans

"She's back in school too?" Alex asks in annoyance. Seeing her almost get pushes over by two jocks rough housing, Aria looks at her friends before getting up and asking Jenna to come sit with them. They watch as Aria takes Jenna's tray and Jenna place her hand on Aria's shoulder so she can find the table.

"So you're gonna be between Hanna and Emily, Alex is across from you, and Spencer is to her left and I'm to her right." Aria says as she sets the tray down at the free seat.

"Thank you." Jenna says once Aria sets her tray down, they all watch in an awkward silence as Jenna sits down.

"So this would be Alison's chair right?" Jenna asks, Alex opens her mouth to say something, probably something mean, but is cut off by Emily.

"No. We're not even sitting at that table." The swimmer says

"You know, she came to visit me in the hospital after the accident." Jenna informs them making Alex raise an eyebrow even though the other girl can't see it.

"Alison did?" Spencer asks surprised

"mm-hm." Jenna says "Everyone misunderstood Alison, but I understood exactly who she was."

"Yea and who was that?" Alex scoffs, scowling when Jenna only smirks at her not bothering to answer the question.

"When did you get back, Jenna?" Spencer asks "We heard that you were in Philadelphia, at a school for the…visually impaired."

"You can say 'blind' Spencer." Jenna says with a smirk "Its okay. Its not a dirty word." She says as she takes a sip of her juice "Wow. Its so quiet. You guys used to be the fun table. What happened to you girls?" she asks with a chuckle.

 __FLASHBACK: __

 _The girls were all having a sleepover at Emily's they were upstairs in her bedroom laughing, listening to music and trying on clothes. Allison pulls on a pink floral shirt and looks at herself in the mirror, she smiles when she catches Alex's in the mirror who was checking out her ass. Alex smirks and winks at the blonde. Alex's smile soon turns into a frown when she catches someone in the window through the mirror._

" _I can see you!" she yells angrily as she runs to the window "Oh my god, I can't believe it!" she says as she turns to the girls._

" _What happened?" Alex asks as she walks over to look through the window_

" _Who was it, Ali?" Emily asks_

" _What did you see?" Alex asks when she doesn't see anything_

" _He was in that tree, spying on us!" the blonde yells angrily "I am so creeped out!"_

" _Who was it?" Spencer asks_

" _It was that perv, Toby Cavanaugh." Ali says_

" _Are you sure?" Aria asks_

" _Yea, I'm sure!" Alison yells "He was right there!" she says "I bet he saw us all naked."_

" _Should we tell someone?" Aria asks unsure of what to do_

" _I mean, we could." Ali says "But I have a better idea." She says with a mischievous smirk making Alex raise an eyebrow._

 _The six of them soon find themselves walking over to the Cavanaugh's house. Ali leading the way followed by Alex, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer._

" _Are we sure he's not in there?" Aria asks_

" _He's not, okay?" Alison says "Alex you got the lighter right?"_

" _Always do." Alex says as she pulls her zippo out of her pants pockets and twirls it around in between in her fingers._

" _Lets wait a second." Emily says stopping them_

" _What Emily?" Alison asks aggravated by their hesitation_

" _I don't want to do this." Emily says_

" _Fine. Go back. You're on your own." Ali says simply_

" _Okay maybe Emily's right." Aria adds "We should just call the cops. They'll take care of it."_

" _Where's the fun in that?" Alex asks with a smirk, making Alison smile that at least one person is on the same page with her._

" _Girls, Toby Cavanaugh is a freak, and we need to teach him a lesson." Alison says "If he thinks he can come and spy on us while we're in your bedroom, Emily, he needs to know that his little domain is no longer a safe little hideout." She rants "Who knows what he does in there all day that little freak."_

" _Are you sure that it was Toby?" Spencer asks_

" _Yes!" Ali says exasperated, Alex rolls her eyes already bored of the conversation._

" _Are we doing this or not? I mean come on it's a stink bomb. Its not like we are going to nuke the place or something." Alex says, Ali nods her head and walks up to the shed door and motions for Alex to give her the lighter, Alex tosses it to her without hesitation._

 _They all watch as Ali lights the stink bomb and opens the door to the shed, Ali tosses it inside and looks around to see if anyone inside. She gasps at what's inside before quickly closing the door and turning to the girls._

" _Lets get out of here." Ali says as she grabs Alex's hand and pulls her away from the shed with the rest of the girls not to far behind. They make it about halfway down the drive way when the firework goes off, quickly setting the shed on fire._

" _Shit." Alex says as she stares at the shed_

" _Ali what did you do!?" Spencer cries_

" _We have to get out of here." Emily says_

" _Come one, lets go!" Alex yells loudly before she pulls Allison and the rest of the girls away from the shed as the sound of sirens approach._

 __FLASHBACK END: __

The girls are pulled out of their memories by the sound of their phones going off, they all look at their phones. None of them reaching out to check who texted them, already knowing who it was and too scared to see what it says. Jenna pads around the table before finding Alex's phone and holding it out for her.

"Aren't you going to get that?" Jenna asks with a smirk, making Alex's jaw lock in anger but she grabs the phone anyway. The girls all look at their phones and turn to look at one another, all of them having gotten the same message, already confirming what they already knew.

' **If only she could see how guilty you look…- A'**

_TIME SKIP: _

The girls all walk into their shared English class and take their seats. Alex sitting behind Spencer with Emily behind her while Hanna sits across the room next to an empty desk.

"Alright everyone let's take our seats." Mr. Fitz says, Mona stops in front of the classroom, looking up from her phone in confusion when she sees everyone sitting down looking at her.

"Am I late?" Mona asks innocently, making Alex roll her eyes already annoyed.

"Its-Its Mona right?" Fitz questions still getting his students names down

"That's right, Mr. Fritz." Mona says as she puts her phone away, the class chuckling at her mispronunciation of the teacher's name "What?" Mona asks confused

"Take your seat, Mona, please." Mr. Fitz says amused, Mona rolls her eye before walking over and sitting at the empty desk by Hanna. The blonde leans over and whispers to her friend

"Its Fitz. Not Firtz."

"Oops." Mona says making both girls giggle.

"If the mockingbird represents the idea of innocence, what characters are innocent?" Fitz asks as he hands out papers "Take a second. Jot down your ideas. We'll discuss."

Alex gives Aria a small smile when she walks in and sits down next to her, she's about to turn and wright down her answer on the paper when she sees the longing looks Aria and Mr. Fitz are giving one another. Alex raises an eyebrow in confusion wondering what's going on. Fitz catches her stare and clears his throat.

"Alex." He calls out "What did you write?" Fitz asks knowing full well that she didn't write anything down yet, but trying to keep the attention off him and Aria.

"I um…" Alex says as she looks down at her blank paper, trying to gather her thoughts "I said that Tom Robinson, Atticus, Boo Radley Jem and Scout represent innocence."

"How so?" Fitz asks

"Being innocent means doing no harm and doing good things for others. Tom Robinson does good by helping Mayella without expecting a reward. Atticus helps Tom by representing him even though it will bring him little reward. Boo helps the children though he fears the public eye. All of these characters who have done well for others, without reward, face the potential for cruelty for their actions." Alex explains ignoring the surprised look from her classmates "Jem and Scout are a symbol of innocence since they are only children and don't see all the bad that the world has to offer."

"Okay…" Fitz says coming over his surprise, clearing his throat he turns to the rest of the class "Anyone else want to share?" he asks

_LATER THAT NIGHT: Emily_

Emily watches from a green striped chair in the corner as Maya walks around her room, taking everything in.

"So I get your connection to Spencer." Maya says with a nod as she looks at all of Emily's trophies. "You both like to win."

"Winning's great, but if I've done my best, I usually feel good about the outcome, no matter what it is." Emily says

"And Spencer?"

"Spencer _needs_ to win." The athlete says watching as Maya walks to her desk and picks up a photo of her and the girls.

"Alison was always in the middle, the center of attention…and Alex was always right there next to her." Maya notes

"Have you ever known anyone like that?"

"I usually run from those girls." Maya says as she puts the photo down "They scare me."

"Those girls?" Emily questions

"The queen bees." Maya states as she takes a seat on the bed

"You seem like a person who wouldn't run from anyone." Emily says

"Do you have a side?" Maya asks, changing the subject

"Sorry?" Emily asks confused as she looks at the bed

"Of the bed?" Maya clarifies

"I kind of sleep in the middle." Emily says with a shrug, Maya smiles

"I kind of sleep in the middle to." She says, Emily smiles having caught the undertone of the answer.

Later that night, Emily and Maya both laying in the swimmers bed, Maya fast asleep while the athlete lays wide awake staring up at her ceiling.

Emily sighs as she turns onto her side, unable to sleep, she tenses when she feels Maya curl into her back. The same way Alex did when she was asleep, and yet it feels completely different. Emily is pulled out of her thoughts by her phone going off, quietly she climbs out of her bed and grabs her phone which she left on her desk.

' **First a queen now a stoner. Did you get a goodnight kiss from either? Well here's one from me XO…- A'**

Emily sighs as she places her phone down and turns back to bed, wondering why she's here in bed with Maya when its Alex she wants to be with.

_NEXT DAY: _

Not feeling like going to school, Alex stays home to unpack all of her family's. When they left after Alison's death, they kept the house incase they ever wanted to visit and covered up all the furniture and boxed up their things, storing whatever they didn't want to bring to Starling city with them in the basement.

By late afternoon she had all the furniture uncovered and the boxes she needed the most brought upstairs. By the time got all the kitchen utensils unpacked and carried her boxes upstairs to her room the sun was setting.

Alex sighs as she opens one of the last boxes of her stuff, she freezes when she sees that this box is filled mostly with pictures of her and Alison. Picking up one of the photos, she smiles slightly at the care free look she and the blonde had. She remembers back to the day it was taken, Ali and had dragged her into the woods to the kissing rock so they could have a picnic together. It was one of last days before Ali left to visit her grandmother.

Carefully placing the picture down on the floor she digs through the rest of the box looking at the other photos. She stops at one of her and the blonde kissing.

 __FLASHBACK: __

" _What are we doing?" Alex laughed as she allowed herself to be pulled through the woods. It was 11:40 at night and both girl's parents were gone, as usual, Oliver and Jason at some party like they always were. No one noticed they were gone._

 _The two girls broke through the woods and come to a stop in the middle of a clearing._

" _So not that I don't love sneaking out with you, but what are we doing in the middle of the woods?" Alex asks, Ali smirked before walking a few steps before sitting down in the grass._

" _Come sit with me?" Ali asks, Alex smiles with a shake of her head before she walks over and sits next to the blonde. Both girls slowly leaning back until they laying down, Alison curling into Alex's side. "Its beautiful isn't it?" Ali asks as she looks up at the stars, Alex looks up and the blackened sky to see it lit up with millions of tiny stars. She never seen so many in one place before._

" _Its okay…. I can think of more beautiful things though." Alex says, Alison turns away from the stars to see the other girl staring at her._

" _You're such a dork." Ali laughs making Alex smile, before she leans in and kisses the blonde._

 _The two girls pull away from one another breathlessly, Ali turning back to the stars while Alex watches her. Entranced by the way the stars reflect in her eyes. "You're not even looking." Ali says not having to turn her head to know the other girl is staring._

" _Sorry." Alex says with a blush as she turns to look at the sky, Alison smiles when she sees a flash of light shoot across the sky._

" _Shooting star. Make a wish." Alison says_

" _I wish we could stay like this forever." Alex says, Ali smiles at the other girl's cheesiness before gently taking Alex's chin and guiding her lips to hers. Without the other girl knowing she snaps a picture of the two of them._

 _When they pull apart Alison shows her the picture_

" _There…now it will." The blonde says making Alex laugh_

" _Now who's the dork." The brunette says before the two girls go back to kissing._

 __END FLASHBACK: __

Alex sighs as she stares at the picture, feeling as if the memory itself knocked the air out of her lungs. Quickly she puts the rest of the pictures back in the box, except the one of her and Alison on a picnic, it hurting to much to even look at them.

Standing up she walks down to the kitchen and pulls out a bottle of vodka from under the sink, taking a quick swing of the burning liquid, allowing it to fill the gaping whole she feels in her chest.

Stumbling into the living room she lays down on the couch, she goes to take another swing of her bottle when something on her wrist catches her eyes.

The friendship bracelet that Alison gave her, along with the rest of their friends, all that time ago. Sitting up as she sloppily takes it off and throws it onto the table, her eyes immediately zeroing in on the heart that's sewn onto the back. Taking a long gulp of the clear liquid as she remembers back to that day, tears falling down her face.

 __FLASHBACK: __

 _The girls all sit in the café laughing at some joke Alex had made._

" _I got you guys something." Alison says once the laughter had died down, before she pulls out six little baggies from her purse and hands them to each of the girls._

" _What's the occasion?" Spencer asks_

" _You'll see. Open 'em." Ali says happily, the girls all open their bags to see bracelets inside with their names sewed onto them. "We'll be friends forever." Ali says as they all start to put them on._

 _Alex looks up at Ali with a smirk, she sees Ali mouth to her to turn it over. The brunettes smirk soon turns into a smile when she sees a heart on the inside of it._

" _Can you put mine on for me Alex?" Ali asks as she holds out her wrist_

" _Only if you put mine on." Alex says with a wink, as she takes the bracelet from the blonde, seeing that hers also has a heart on the back. Alex clips the bracelet on and allows her hands to linger on the blonde's a moment too long before holding out her wrist allowing Alison to clip hers on. Alison smiles and makes sure to brush her finger tips along the other girl's hand as she pulls away._

 __END OF FLASHBACK: __

Alex stares into space as she thinks back to that day, ignoring the now dry tears on her face. She lifts her bottle to take another drink only to feel something warm holding her wrist, stopping her. Looking down at her wrist, she sees a hand clamped there, following the hand to an arm then to a body, her eyes finally land on the face of someone she thought dead.

"Alison?" Alex slurs as she stares up at the blonde through blurred vision "Your dead."

"I know… and I'm so sorry." Alison says sadly, as she stares down at her drunken mess of a girlfriend. The blonde gently takes the bottle out of the other girl's hand and places it on the ground. She kneels in front of the other girl, watching as she drunkenly sways back and forth. "I need you to stop doing this to yourself. I need you to promise me that you will start taking care of yourself."

"What are promises to someone whose dead." Alex says bitterly, she goes to reach for the bottle only to have Alison move it from her reach.

"It hurts me to see you like this." She says, Alex glares at the blonde

"You're not here…you left me." Alex says as a wave of new tears fall "You left me…and it hurts….it hurts so bad."

"I know. I know baby." Alison says as she gently wipes some tears off the other girls face. "But I need you to take care of yourself for me okay? Whoever this A person is, their bad news."

"Did A kill you?" Alex slurs

"Just promise me okay? No more drinking…at least to the point where you get this drunk." Alison says "Promise me." She says, her voice hard when the other girl doesn't respond. Alex nods.

"I promise." She slurs, Alison nods her head in relief and helps the other girl lay down "Alison are you happy? Wherever you are?" Alison smiles sadly at the brunette, grabbing the friendship bracelet she looks down at it sadly before gently clasping it onto the other girl's wrist.

"Get some sleep." She whispers as she gently kisses Alex's forehead before laying a blanket over top of her. The last thing Alex hears before allowing sleep to consume her is the sound of Alison's voice whispering her love for her.


	4. Chapter 4

Emily leads the girls through towards the shed in the middle of the woods that they all used to hang out at, before Allison's death.

"Whose idea was this again?" Hanna complains

"Emily's mom." Spencer says

"The shed was me. My mom just said we should do _something_ for us." Emily answers

"Well couldn't we do something without mosquitoes?" Hanna asks

"They're not mosquitoes, they're gnats." Aria informs

"Whatever! They're small and annoying, and they're flying up my nose." Hanna complains

"Well they're attracted to your perfume." Spencer says "And your hair product and your lip gloss."

"So what are you saying I attract flies?" Hanna asks

"Gnats." Aria corrects

"I just want coffee." Alex whines from the back of the line, her head pounding for her last night drinking session.

"What's up with you?" Spencer asks

"Yea you look like crap." Aria adds

"Thanks guys." Alex deadpans "And for your information…I'm hungover."

"Really on a school night?" Spencer says, Alex opens her mouth to retort but it interrupted by Emily.

"Why do I feel like this is the wrong way?" Emily asks stopping as she looks around, Alex pushes her way up next to Emily and looks around.

"No this is it." Alex says before turning to her friends "Can someone tell me why we couldn't stop for coffee?"

"I told you I'd buy you one." Emily says "How do you know?"

"She'd right. I remember that tree." Spencer adds pointing to the tree in front of them "It's the halfway point. There's 136 steps left to the shed."

"Have you been our here since…Alison?" Emily asks

"Me? No. No way." Spencer says

"But you remember that tree." Aria says slowly

"Alex remembers it too." Spencer says defensively, the girls look at Alex who merely shrugs her shoulders.

"You guys, its not weird." Hanna says "I mean we came out here in eighth grade, like every day- even after."

"I think this is totally the wrong place to do this whatever you call it- shrine." Spencer says

"Its not a shrine." Emily says "Its just a place to remember Alison. What's wrong with that?"

"Doing it way out here makes it look like we have something to hide." Spencer says

"You're worried about what other people think?" Emily asks

"Well aren't you?" Spencer asks "Do you really want to give that creepy detective more reasons to question us."

"I don't really care where it is along as I can get some coffee." Alex adds

Hearing them talk about Wilden, Hanna starts walking forward so she's now leading the line.

"Hanna why are you so quiet?" Emily asks

"I'm trying to keep the bugs in my nose and out my mouth." Hanna says

"Your allowed to have an opinion on this." Emily says

"You want my opinion?" Hanna asks as she stops and turns around to face them "I say we hold off and not remember her till we know for sure she's not still here."

"What?" the girls ask

"What are you talking about?" Aria asks

"You think she's still alive?" Alex asks, ignoring the worried look Emily is giving her

"Hanna, they found her body." Spencer says

"Stop. I'm officially scared." Aria says "Can we just not-"

"You asked for my opinion." Hanna interrupts "I don't believe she's really gone." She says before continuing her walking.

"We went to her funeral!" Spencer says as she follows the blonde, followed by Aria. Emily gently takes Alex's hand and gives it a squeeze, knowing that talking like this probably hurts her.

"Yeah and when we left we all got a text from her." Hanna says

"It wasn't _her_." Emily says "Someone is messing with us."

"How do you know? And what about all those nasty messages?" Hanna asks "I mean how does this A person know stuff only Ali knew?"

"Okay this conversation is giving me a hive." Aria says

"That's a bite. Mosquito." Hanna informs

"Okay can we just stop talking about this." Alex says as she rubs her temples "Making my headache worse."

"Spencer have you gotten anymore messages?" Emily asks changing the subject

"Haven't you?" Spencer asks

The girls all stop talking when they hear rustling coming from the woods.

"What was that? Did you hear that?" Emily asks

"Yes, I heard that." Aria says "I'm standing right next to you."

The girls all look around trying to find the source of the noise.

"Hello?" Hanna calls out "Is anybody out there?"

"Its probably a rabbit." Spencer says

"Hello?" Hanna calls again

"It's a rabbit Hanna. Its not gonna answer you." Alex says

"Can we just get to the shed?" Emily asks, they all turn when the rustling gets louder

"Okay that is definitely not a rabbit. Someone's out there." Hanna says

"Lets turn around." Emily says

The girls all turn to leave when their phones go off, looking at one another as they pull them out to see a text from A.

' **Heads up, BFF's. Its open season on liars and I'm hunting…- A'**

The lairs all look around the woods, scared, trying to find out who the hell this person is and where they are.

_AT SCHOOL: _

Alex walks into the school wearing jeans an old t-shirt and sunglasses, she starts to head inside only to be stopped by Noel.

"Hey how's my lez-bro doing today?" Noel asks as he throws an arm over her shoulder

"Arm off." She says not in the mood, Noel removes his arm and hold his hands out in surrender.

"Rough night?" he asks with a laugh making Alex roll her eyes, even though he can't see them through her glasses.

"So not in the mood today." She says before stopping and turning towards her friend "What do you want Noel?"

"I'm throwing a party tonight and your invited of course." He says with a smirk

"Aren't I always?" she asks as she resumes walking, Noel chuckles as he begins walking with her again. Alex glares at him when he yet again throws an arm over her shoulder, which he ignores.

"So your coming right?" he asks hopefully, when she doesn't respond he continues "Come on, I need my wing-woman there with me."

"Fine. I'll go…but I make no promises about being your whatever you just said." Alex says, making Noel light up like a kid on Christmas.

"Alright cool. See ya then." He says before walking away. Alex rolls her eyes and turns down another hallway, seeing Spencer and Aria standing by a row of lockers she walks over to them.

"Hey." She says tiredly once she's close enough, the girls respond in kind.

They all turn to see Jenna walking down the hallway guided by her half brother Toby. The girls, now joined by Hanna, stand in shock, remembering how they all watched as Toby carried Jenna out of the burning shed.

They all stare as Toby walks away from Jenna and back to his class, the girls make eye contact with Emily, whose walking down the hall with Maya carrying a large cup of coffee, as if to say that they need to talk.

Alex stares at Maya with a glare, although not visible through her glasses, when she sees Maya's hand linger, a little to long for her liking, on Emily's arm when they separate.

"Hey." Emily says once she reaches them

"Oh thank god." Alex says when Emily hands her the coffee

"He's back too? When did that happen?" Aria asks, ignoring the two girls

"Maybe she needs help sending her radioactive emails." Hanna says

"Yeah or he may be sending a few of his own." Spencer says

"Well I don't know about you guys by my day is starting out fantastic." Alex says sarcastically as she sips her coffee, she takes off her glasses and sticks them in her shirt. The girls all turn when they hear someone call Hanna to see Wilden.

"Oh look its officer nippledick." Alex mutters into her coffee making Spencer choke while Emily elbows her in the ribs.

"I just spoke with your principal, asked him if we could have a chat." Wilden says once he reaches them.

"No, I have to get to class." Hanna says

"Don't worry. You've been excused." He says "Lets go."

The girls watch helplessly as Wilden leads Hanna away to talk. As soon as they round the corner they all turn to one another.

"What is going on? Why just her?" Aria asks

"Probably thinks she's the easiest to crack." Emily says

"She is." Alex says

"Whisper, whisper, whisper. Almost feels like Alison's still here." Jenna says with a smirk as she walks by them.

"I swear to god I'll-" Alex mutters as she takes a step to go towards the blind girl only to be pulled back by her friends.

"No. We are not doing anything to her." Spencer says sternly while Alex glares where Jenna once was.

"You know I don't think I like hungover you." Aria says "Your very grouchy."

"Really I thought I raised unicorns and shat rainbows." Alex says with a wide sarcastic smile before her face goes back to normal. She takes another gulp of her coffee before heading to class, leaving the girls to stare after her.

"Definitely grouchy." Emily agrees

"Yup." Spencer says as they all follow Alex's lead.

_AFTER CLASS: _

After their class the girls all meet up at Hanna's locker to wait and see what happened.

"What are you doing? Is that a new phone?" Spencer asks seeing Aria playing around with her phone.

"Yeah its my Facebook, I'm just going to write on Hanna's wall from here." Aria says

"If she's not answering texts what makes you think she's checking Facebook?" Alex asks

"Its worth a try." Aria says

"What's going on?" Hanna asks making all the girls look up from Aria's phone

"We've been trying to get ahold of you." Aria says as she moves out of the way so Hanna can get in her locker "What happened in there?"

"Nothing, just the same old stupid questions." Hanna says as she puts her books in her locker.

"You were in there for an hour, Hanna." Spencer says "What else did he ask?"  
"Nothing." Hanna says "He just took a couple calls and I just sat there, waiting for him to shut up."

"Is he gonna question all of us alone now?" Aria asks

"Who knows? Look, lets just do this a lunch okay?" the blonde says "I have to hit the ladies before my next class."

"Is she being weird?" Spencer asks as they watch their friend walk away

"She's being weird." Emily agrees before leaning off the locker "I'll see you guys at lunch."

The girls all split up to go to their different classes

"Alex…" Emily says as she catches up with the girl whose walking the same way as her "How are you feeling?"

"Better. Thanks for the coffee by the way." Alex says feeling more human.

"No problem." Emily says with a small smile "So um do you want to hang out after school today? I have swim practice later, but after that?"

"Sure. I'll wait for you." Alex says with a matching smile

"Great. See ya at lunch." Emily says before walking into her classroom. Alex smiles excited that she'll get the swimmer all to herself.

_AFTER SCHOOL: _

Alex sighs from where she's leaning up against Emily's locker where the athlete said to meet her after her practice which ended 20 minutes ago. Pushing herself off the lockers she makes her way towards the gym locker room, she stops when she hears struggling coming from inside. Hearing the sound of Emily's voice telling Ben to get off her, Alex drops her bag and rushes inside. Seeing red when she sees Ben kissing a struggling Emily whose pinned against a row of lockers.

Alex shoves Ben off the other girl with enough force that it sends him into another row of lockers.

"You son of a bitch." Ben curses as he walks over to Alex, who's standing protectively in front of Emily. Ben swings at the other girl, hitting her lip causing it to split open. Alex barely has time to dodge the next punch before throwing one of her own and kneeing him in the groin making him fall to his knees.

"Guys stop!" Emily cries from the background, Alex ignores her only focusing on the fight as she punches Ben in the face repeatedly until he falls onto his back with a dazed look on his face.

"Touch her again and your done." She growls into his ear before punching him one last time and standing up walking over to Emily.

"Its done. We're over." Emily says before taking Alex hand and walking out of the locker room.

"Are you okay?" Alex asks worriedly as she looks her over.

"Am I okay? You're the one bleeding." Emily states as stares at Alex lip, already feeling guilty.

Alex reaches up and touches her lip wincing when her fingers touch the wound.

"I'll be fine." Alex says as she wipes the blood off her face with her sleeve "So do you want a ride home?" Emily shakes her head sadly

"Can we just…go somewhere else?" Emily asks "I don't really feel like dealing with my mom right now."

"My place?" Alex asks, seeing the swimmer nod she leads the other girl out of the school and to her car. The drive to Alex's house spent in silence except for the radio playing in the background, both girls thinking about what had occurred in the locker room.

Alex walks up to her house and unlocks the door, holding it open so Emily can walk in.

"Where are your parents, Oliver and Thea?" Emily asks as Alex shuts the door behind them.

"They're back in Starling City. I managed to talk them into letting me stay here until they find Alison's killer." Alex says, Emily nods as she looks around the house. Everything exactly the same as it was a year ago. She turns around to look at the brunette to see her lip bleeding again.

"Your bleeding again." Emily says looking at the girl worried, Alex lets out a small curse as she tries to wipe the blood from her lip with her sleeve. Emily rolls her eyes at the other girl and walks over, taking the other girls hand in hers and leading her to the kitchen. "Lets get you cleaned up."

"Emily, I'm fine." Alex says, the swimmer ignores the other girls and pulls her into the kitchen. She walks over to the small table that's inside and gently pushes Alex into the seat as she goes to grab the first aid kit. "Emily really-" Alex tries, as she starts to stand up

"Stay." Emily says making sure she sits back down and stays there, before going back to digging through the cabinet where the first aid kit is.

"I'm not a dog." Alex grumbles with a huff as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Once she finds it, the swimmer walks back over to the green eyed girl with the kit in one hand and a wet wash cloth in the other.

Emily gently hooks her finger underneath Alex's chin so her head is pointing upwards and she can get a better angle on the cut. Alex tires to keep her eyes focused on anything other than Emily's face, which is mere centimes from her own but is failing miserably. Alex winces when the cloth touches the cut.

"Sorry." Emily apologizes quietly, as she pulls away

"Its okay…I've had worse." Alex says just as quietly

"Why did you do it?"

"What?" Alex asks confused

"Why did you fight Ben?"

"You mean besides the reason that he had you pinned against lockers and wouldn't get off you?!" Alex asks her fists clenching at just the memory of what happened in the bathroom.

"You could of gotten seriously hurt."

"Me? Em he could of…" She says, her eyes clenching shut at the thought of what could have happened. Forcing herself to take a calming breath she opens her eyes to see a pair of brown eyes staring intensely at her. "I don't care what could have happened. All that matters is that I stopped it from getting out of hand and I don't regret a single moment of it." She says determinedly

The two girls stare at one another, Emily steps forward, and kisses the other girl giving in to everything she ever wanted since the 8th grade when she first met her. Alex stands there in shock, sweet innocent Emily freaking Fields was kissing her. Before Alex could kiss back it was broken.

"Oh my god Alex! I'm so sorry! I'm not- I mean I- oh god" Emily cries "I-I got to go!" she says before rushing out of the room leaving a still frozen Alex.

"Emily wait!" Alex yells snapping out of her trance, she goes to run after her but practically feels the sound of the door closing, vibrate through her body.

Alex sighs as she slides down the back of her door, her fingers lightly brushing her lips as she thinks back to the kiss, she can't help but compare how different it was to kiss Emily then is was kissing Alison.

_LATER THAT NIGHT: _

Alex steps out of her car wearing black skinny jeans, a light blue button up, doc martins and a beanie. Following the crowd of excited teens inside. Noel smiles and walks over to her when he sees her walk in.

"You made it!" He says happily

"I did." She says as her eyes scan the crowd for any of the girls, specifically Emily. "Have you seen the girls?"

"I think their outside." Noel says as he hands her a cup filled with beer "So I heard that you're the one who did that to his face." Noel says nodding to where Ben is playing Foosball with Sean, the side of his face bruised.

"He's an ass and deserves worse." She says as she sips her beer, glaring at the boy. Noel laughs and claps her on the shoulder.

"Yeah well try not to break anything if you two end up coming to blows." He says, Alex turns to him with a smirk.

"I make no promises." She says making Noel laugh again "I'm going to find the girls also the blonde over there has been checking you out for the last 15 minutes." She says before walking away leaving Noel to flirt with the girl.

Alex walks outside to see the rest of Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily all standing outside.

"You guys do realize this is a party right?" Alex says "Your supposed to be having fun not sitting in a corner."

"What happen to your face?" Aria asks seeing her barley concealed bruised chin.

"Its nothing. Got into a small fight is all."

"A fight with Ben you mean?" Hanna says with a smirk, Alex's eyes shift over to the swimmer to see her looking anywhere else except for her "Did you do that to his face?"

"Nothing he didn't deserve." Alex says with a smirk as she takes a sip of her drink "So what's going on?"

"Oh you know the usual, just more secrets." Aria sighs, Alex follows Hanna's eyes to see her staring at Sean who just came outside.

"Look I'll see you guys tomorrow." Hanna says as she turns back around to look at her friends "We're still meeting at the shed right?" she asks, walking away before anyone can answer.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. Why not?" Aria says aggravated

"Where are you going?" Emily asks, seeing Aria grab her stuff

"The gallery. I promised my mom." The artists says before leaving

"So Em about-" Alex tries only to be cut off when Maya walks over to the swimmer carrying two blue solo cups.

"Hey I brought drinks." Maya says cheerily

"Thanks." Emily says with a small smile as she takes her drink and quickly takes a large sip.

"So you wanna go a few rounds of foosball?" Maya asks with a smirk making Alex glare at her, not that the other girl noticed since her back was facing her.

"Sure. Sounds like fun." Emily says before following the other girl inside. Alex glaring at their backs.

Quickly downing the rest of her drink she turns to Spencer

"I'm going to go play beer pong you in?" She asks, the other girl shakes her head no "Cool…I'm on my own then." She huffs out before walking towards Noel, wanting to get her drink on.

About a half hour later Noel and Alex have finished playing beer pong and are now in an intense game of foosball.

"Oh 4 to nothing." Alex yells happily when her ball makes it in the goal, yet again. Noel rolls his eyes as he struggles to take the ball out of the goal. He's not the greatest at beer pong, him being extremely tipsy versus Alex's light buzz.

Alex finds her eyes drifting over to where Maya and Emily are leaning up against a wall talking and laughing about something, her eyes narrow when she sees Maya leans forward to steady herself of Emily when she begins to laugh at something the other girl said, her hand lingering on the other girls arm a bit longer then necessary. Alex's attention is brought back to the game by the sound of Noel cheering when the ball goes in.

"Whatever you're still losing." Alex says with a roll of her eyes as she lines the ball back up

"So what's up with you and Emily?" Noel asks hitting the ball back to her

"What do you mean?" Alex asks making herself sound confused, as she blocks the ball and hits it back to Noel, letting out a quiet yes when it goes in.

"I mean you've been sending her these longing looks every 5 minutes and glaring at the new girl." Noel says

"I don't know what your talking about." She denies as he throws the ball back in "And my looks aren't longing." She mumbles, Noel smirks haven heard her.

"You like her." He states, ignoring the fact that she got another goal "You should go talk to her." He says, Alex lets out a sigh as she stands up straighter and looks over at Emily.

"I don't think she wants to talk to me."

"She doesn't have to talk just make her listen." Noel says as he walks over to his friend and gives her a shove towards the swimmer, making the other girl stumble slightly.

Alex shoots Noel a glare who just smiles and throws two thumbs up, rolling her eyes she straightens out her jacket and fixes her hair. Taking a deep breath she puts on her most confident smile and heads towards her hopefully-soon-to-be-more-than-friend.

"Hey Maya I'm just going to borrow Emily here real quick. Okay? Okay. Thanks. Bye." Alex says with a tight smile before dragging the athlete towards the photo booth, not waiting for an answer.

"You know you don't have to be so rude to her." Emily says once their inside making Alex roll her eyes.

"Whatever." Alex says "We need to talk."

"Look about earlier today. I am so sorry…I know that you are still trying to get over Ali and-" Emily starts

"Wait you know about me and Alison?" Alex asks with a raised eyebrow, Emily nods with a slight blush on her face. "We thought we were doing an amazing job of hiding it."

"You were none of the other girls know." Emily says "The only reason I found out was because-" Emily says but cuts herself off when she realizes what she was about to say.

"Because what?" Alex asks curious, she watches as a blush colors the swimmers cheeks and she looks down.

"I've had a crush on you since the 8th grade." Emily says quitely making Alex smile

"Then why'd you freak out and run out of my house after you kissed me?" Alex asks

"I know how hard its been losing Ali and I didn't want to make it any harder on you." Emily says finally looking up at the girl. "I know how much you loved her."

"Losing Ali has been tough…" Alex says with a nod as she thinks about what to say next "And some part of me will always love Alison, but thing is she's…gone. And she's not coming back, so I'm trying my best to move on."

"You are?" Emily asks, Alex nods

"Yea" Alex says as she turns to face the athlete "I've come to the realization that I'm starting to feel the same way about someone as I once did with Alison." She says giving Emily a small smile. Emily blushes and turns to face the camera.

"So um how do we take pictures in this thing?" Emily asks not sure how to respond to Alex basically telling her she likes her back, maybe even loves her. Alex smirks and quickly turns on the machine to take pictures.

The first one is of them smiling with Alex holding bunny ears behind the athlete's head, the second of them laughing, the third of them making funny faces at one another, the next of them leaning in towards one another, staring onto each other eyes and the last on of Alex's hand wrapped around the back of Emily's neck pulling the other girl into a kiss. Emily was surprised at first but quickly returned the kiss. After a moment they pull a part, both breathless from the lack of air and racing heartbeats.

"Wow." Emily sighs, Alex smirks

"Yea I have that effect on people." She says before taking Emily's hand and moving to get out of the booth "Come on let's go before people start to wonder what we're doing in here so long."

The girls step out of the booth and unclasp hands, Emily not comfortable with people knowing about her being interested in the same sex yet.

"Wait where are the pictures?" Emily asks trying to keep the panic out of her voice but failing miserably

"They probably just ran out of paper." Alex says with shrug as she looks around, she smirks when she sees Noel making out with the blonde from earlier. Sensing Emily's still evident panic she turns to the other girl "Look don't worry about it. Lets just get some food." She says as she takes the swimmers hand again and leads them to where she last saw the pizza.

_TIME SKIP: _

Emily and Alex are walking out of the house, the party still raging on behind them but neither one of them interested in continuing.

"And your positive you don't want me to drive you home?" Alex asks as she walks her to where Maya is waiting for the athlete

"Yea…besides I went here with Maya I cant just ditch her." Emily says, making Alex roll her eyes "Be nice."

"I make no promises." Alex says this time making the swimmer roll her eyes

"Are you sure your okay to drive?" Emily asks worriedly

"Yes…I barely I had anything to drink tonight." Alex says making Emily raise an eyebrow

"I saw you play 3 games of beer pong with Noel." She states

"All of which he lost because he sucks." Alex says with a laugh, Emily rolls her eyes

"Fine. Just promise me that you'll be careful?" She asks, Alex gives the other girl a small smile

"I will. Text me when you get home?" Alex asks, Emily nods her head before giving the green eyed girls hand one last squeeze before going to meet Maya.

Alex sighs happily as she gets into her car, she's about 15 minutes from her house when she sees tail lights on the side of the road along with smoke coming out of the front of the car.

"What the hell?" she mutters as she pulls to a stop, looking at the crashed car. She looks around but doesn't see anyone, she slowly drives up more to see a blonde in a red tank top walking down the side of the road.

"Hanna?" she calls, noticing the other girls tear streaked face when she turns around. Quickly throwing her car in park she gets out of the car and walks over to her friend "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I um- I…Sean…" she stutters,

"Alright. Let me just get you home okay?" Alex says, seeing the other girl struggling to get the words out. She gently takes Hanna's arm and guides her over to her car. Once she's in the passenger side she runs back to the driver side.

After a few minutes of driving in silence Alex breaks it

"So what did Sean do that got you mad enough to crash his car?" she asks, Hanna rolls her eyes as she wipes her tears away.

"He didn't do anything." Hanna says

"Really?"

"Yes. Really." Hanna says frustrated, after a few moments of quiet Hanna continues "He wouldn't have sex with me." Hanna says sadly, "All I kept thinking was that I was back to being Hefty Hanna and that's why we never did it. And I don't know…. I-I just panicked and I was mad and I wanted to get out of there." She explains with a sigh "So I took his car, I was planning on just leaving him there and driving myself home…. I never planned to crash it."

"What are you going to do now?" Alex asks as she pulls up to the blonde's house

"I don't know…. I'll figure it out." She says with a sigh, she opens the door to get out but stops to turn and look at Alex. "Could you um not tell anyone about this? I just don't feel like dealing with all the questions yet."

"I won't tell anyone but you do realize that you are going to have to tell Sean right?" Alex says, Hanna nods her head sadly as she climbs out of the car.

"Thanks for the ride." Hanna says quietly before closing the door and making her way up to her house. Alex stays outside until she's sure Hanna gets in safely before driving away.

_NEXT DAY: _

The girls walk through the woods, this time planning on actually making it to the shed. They listen to Spencer about how she saw Alison and Toby arguing the night of the fire, how she had something on Toby and threatened to tell everyone if he didn't take the fall for us.

"Do you know what she had on him?" Hanna asks Alex, who just shakes her head

"Ali had things on just about everyone." Alex says

"Why are you waiting until now to tell us?" Aria asks

"I don't know. Ali made me promise, and… I guess I was scared." Spencer says "I thought if we never talked about that night again, it would just go away."

"Well its not going away." Aria says

"Not unless we toss our phones and join the Navy." Hanna adds

"I'm actually okay with that." Alex agrees

"Look there's four of us, and one freak sending messages." Emily says as they all begin walking to the shed. "If we just talk to each other, like this, I feel like it makes it easier to deal with everything."

"I think Emily's right. There's way too many secrets." Aria says "We shouldn't do this in the middle of nowhere."

"I agree. We should do it where we can see it everyday." Alex says determinedly "Somewhere Ali's killer has to look at it every day."

"Like somewhere in school?" Hanna asks

"No in town." Aria says "Like a bench or something."

"What you hate the idea?" Spencer asks as they come to a stop, seeing Hanna sigh.

"No. No, I just… I had a rough night." Hanna says

Hearing rustling coming from the woods the girls all look at one another, before Alex takes off running towards the sound, Spencer and the rest of the girls not to far behind her. Coming to where the noises where coming from they look down to see a bracelet laying on the ground.

"Is that yours?" Aria asks, Alex shakes her head no

"Alison's." She chokes out seeing the name on the bracelet. They girls all stare down at the bracelet in shock, knowing that the blonde was wearing it the night she died.


	5. Chapter 5

"How bad did your mom bust you over wrecking Sean's car?" Emily asks as they walk towards the place in town where they are going to put Alison's memorial.

"Okay, I did not wreck it; I damaged it." Hanna says "And actually everyone's being really mature about it."

"Oh." Aria says

"There's no oh." Hanna says as they come to a stop at a bench "We're just being grown-ups, that's all."

"Okay so the town is gonna put in a new bench, and we'll plant the flowerbeds, and there's gonna be a pathway of art tiles." Aria explains

"Art tiles?" Spencer asks

"Messages, pictures, memories of Alison." Alex verifies

"Oh like little headstones." Hanna says with a small smile

"Hanna!" Aria says

"What?" Hanna asks not thinking she did anything wrong

"We should each do a tile." Emily states trying to keep the conversation on track

"I've had Alison's bracelet since the day we found it in the woods, and I don't want the responsibility anymore." Hanna says as she pulls it out of her purse and holds it out for Alex to take.

"I don't want it." Alex says, not needing anymore reminders of Alison in her home than she already has. Hanna holds it out for anyone else to take but no one moves.

"Seriously, somebody take this." Hanna says frustrated, Spencer sighs before taking the bracelet.

"Look at us. Bunch of babies." Spencer says from her spot on the bench, as she looks down at the bracelet "There is nothing A can say or do to get us into the trouble without making trouble for herself."

"Are you sure is a her?" Hanna asks

"Him, Her, doesn't make any difference." Spencer says before she reaches into her bag and takes out her laptop.

"What are you doing?" Alex asks, all of them watching as Spencer begins to type.

"I'm gonna block all messages from people that I don't know. Im's, texts, e-mails, everything. Screw A." Spencer explains; her computer makes a beeping noise signaling that its done. "There. Whose next?" she asks

"Gimme." Alex says, Spencer hands her the computer and gets up so she can sit down.

"Woah." Spencer says seeing Mr. Fitz ride by on his bike "I spy with my little eyes something that begins with F."

"Hey, Mr. Fitz." Hanna says loudly drawing the teacher's attention over to them

"Looking good, Mr. Fitz." Spencer calls.

"Here Em." Alex says once shes done, handing the computer to the athlete.

"There are teachers that you don't want to see on a bike, and there are teachers that you do want to see on a bike." Spencer says as they watch Fitz ride away.

As soon as the computer beeps Aria takes the computer from Emily. Uncomfortable with everyone's eyes on the teacher.

"I would not want to see Mr. Gilardi on a bike." Alex says

"I don't want to think of Mr. Gilardi in motion of any kind." Emily adds making them both laugh.

"Ah, Mr. Fitz." Hanna says dreamily

"Hanna. Your turn." Aria says loudly as soon as her computer beeps, she passes it to the other girl.

"You talk to Ben?" Spencer asks

"Nothing to talk about." Emily says uncomfortably

"So your really done?" Aria asks

"Its okay. I'm fine." Emily reassures them

"Okay if you say so." Aria says

"I wish we had a drum roll for this." Hanna sighs as she finishes typing "Alright, here it goes." She says before clicking enter, the computer letting out a beep.

"We are officially A proofed." Alex says happily

"Listen, all those little messages zipping through the air all around us." Spencer says

"Yep and none of them from A" Aria says

"This feels like a good thing." Emily says as she sits on the bench with Hanna and Aria.

"Of course it's a good thing." Alex says

"Out of mind. Out of sight." Hanna says

The girls all look down when a piece of paper is blown towards them by the wind, Aria picks it up to see that it's a missing person's poster of Alison with 'Ding Dong the bitch is Dead' written across is in red sharpie.

The girls all look around wondering where it came from but not being able to spot anything out of the ordinary. Aria quickly crumbles up the piece of paper, as they all stand up and walk away.

_AT SCHOOL: _

Emily walks starts to head towards the cafeteria to meet up with her friends, sipping her coffee as she goes when she gets stopped by Maya.

"Hey I got something for you." Maya says as she starts to dig through her bag, pulling out a red scarf "I saw this and thought it was the greatest color on the planet." She says as she placed it around the swimmer's neck. Maya smiles approvingly when she sees it on Emily "I was right. Its spectacular." She says

"Its-Its great." Emily says as she looks down at the scarf "Thanks." The two girls smile at each other

"Catch you later." Maya says before pulling her into a hug and then walking away. Emily tucks some hair behind her ear and goes to turn inside but catches Toby through the window. She shifts uncomfortably before continuing inside.

"Ooh hot scarf, Em." Spencer says when Emily joins them, Emily looks down at the scarf a little uncomfortable already with the attention.

"Thanks."

"Is it new?" Hanna asks

"No." Emily says, happy that Hanna's phone rings stopping her from asking anymore questions. Hanna pulls out her phone and stares at the screen before looking up at her friends unsure what to do.

"Go ahead answer it." Aria says "We know who it _can't_ be from."

"Hanna." Emily says when the blonde doesn't respond

"Its my dad." She says with a smile before answering it "Hey dad." She says as she walks away from the group so she can talk more privately. Leaving the other girls to stare after her.

"Hey guys what up?" Alex says as she walks over to them "Where's Hanna?" she asks noticing the missing blonde.

"She's talking to her dad." Aria says nodding where they could see the blonde on the phone through the window

"Really? When's the last time they talked?" she asks curiously, knowing that they didn't talk much since he left.

"I don't know." Aria says

"Its one of those 'don't ask, don't tell' situations'." Spencer says, Alex nods her head in understanding before taking Emily's coffee out of her hands making the athlete look at her in surprise.

Alex shoots the other girl of wink as she takes a sip before handing it back.

"Sorry didn't get my morning caffeine." she says with a small smile

"We shouldn't stare at her. Come on." Aria says as she leads the group away from where Hanna is.

Aria looks down when her phone goes off and lets out an annoyed sigh

"My brother's post just showed up on my loop." She says as they all begin to walk away from the window.

"You added him as a favorite?" Alex asks

"Yeah. Moment of weakness." Aria says as she throws out her coffee, and keeps on walking. Emily does the same and goes to catch up with the others but is cut off by Toby when he throws something away.

"Sorry." Toby says

"My fault." Emily says quietly as she walks around him to meet her friends who are staring after the boy. Alex glares at the boy before joining her friends.

"I wonder if we just bumped into A." Aria says once their far enough

"It doesn't matter. We're done with A right?" Spencer says

"Right. Yeah." Aria agrees remembering that they blocked everything. "But I'm still staying out of Toby's way."

"Yeah and Jenna's." Alex agrees

"I guess that's the safest thing to do." Emily says

The girls walk down the hallway talking about everything and nothing as they wait for Hanna to get off the phone with their dad.

"Hey I'll be right back. I have to talk about a homework assignment with Mr. Fitz." Aria says before walking into a classroom.

A few minutes later she comes back to see the other girls talking to Hanna.

"He has to be in new England for a couple weeks, but he's making a special trip out to see me." Hanna says happily as they begin to walk down the hallway.

"That's- that's great, Hanna." Aria says

"What?" Hanna asks seeing the looks on her friend's faces

"Its just… do you think he's out here because of the thing with Sean's car?" Emily asks the question they were all thinking.

"No he's not. Look, I asked. Absolutely not." Hanna says stopping the girls from walking "And besides ever if he was, at least he's still coming out to see me."

"Spencer!" A voice calls, ending the discussion on Hanna's dad. The girls all turn to see Mr. Sheldrake, Spencer's AP history teacher, walking over to them.

"Mr. Sheldrake." Spencer says in surprise as she walks to meet him

"I was gonna tell you in class, but here you are." The man says excitedly "Remarkable job on the Russian history essay."

"Oh, thanks." Spencer says awkwardly

"Very lucid presentation."

"Its not really a new idea." Spencer says trying to down play it

"I've submitted it for the golden orchid." The teacher says proudly, he goes to walk away but is stopped by Spencer.

"You what?!" Spencer asks, shocked.

"There's an honorarium." The teacher explains "But you know the real upside to winning an essay competition like that is how it looks on your applications."

"Wait can we-?" Spencer tries but is cut off

"We'll discuss the details after class." The teacher says happily before walking away.

"What's a golden orchid?" Hanna asks

"It's a national competition for historical writing." Alex says, seeing the girls look at her surprise "What I pay attention in school." She says defensively

"Alex won an Golden Orchid last year." Spencer informs them

"So what your as smart as Spencer?" Aria asks

"I have an IQ of 160." Alex says with a sigh, not liking talking about how she smart she truly is.

"So that's a yes?" Emily says slightly unsure, Spencer rolls her eyes not liking admitting that she's not the smartest one in the group.

"Well at least Spencer now has someone she can talk smart with." Hanna teases with a smile. They all look at one another when they hear the bell ring.

"I'll see you guys later." Aria says as they all split up to go to their classes.

"Oh Em." Alex says stopping the swimmer who turns to look at her questionably "I never got to tell you earlier but you look really hot in that scarf." She says, giving the other girl a wink before heading to class.

Emily looks down at the scarf, feeling slightly guilty that she's wearing something Maya gave her, as well as paranoid that someone will find out that she's attracted to the same sex. Looking around she makes sure no one is looking at her before walking over to her locker. Quickly putting in the combination and taking one last look around, before talking off the scarf. She carefully hangs it into her locker, closing it then making her way toward her next class.

Emily walks into her chemistry class to see it empty besides of one other person, Toby Cavanaugh. Carefully walking into the room, she stops in the front.

"Hi." Toby says

"Hi." Emily replies unsure of what to do "Are you gonna be in this lab?"

"Starting today." He says as he shows her the piece of paper that he was holding in his hand with a red stamp on it, saying it was approved.

"Cool." Emily says quietly as she walks over and takes a seat at one of the desks in the middle of the room by the window.

"You were wearing a scarf this morning." Toby states as he walks by her

"Yeah I was." Emily says as she begins to dig through her bag for the supplies she'll need for class. "I took it off."

"It looked good on you."

"Thanks." She says, Emily watches as Toby walks to the front and hands his paper to the teacher. "Oh please no. Not here." Emily says to herself when she sees Toby walking back "oh please, oh please, oh please." Her prayers go unanswered though when he stops in front of her

"So I guess we're lab partners." He says awkwardly "You okay with that?"

"Sure." She says as Toby goes around and takes a seat next to her. Emily goes to open her chemistry book but quickly slams it shut when she sees the photo booth picture of her and Alex kissing.

Ignoring the stares from her classmates she carefully looks at Toby whose staring a head, hoping that he didn't see anything.

_WITH ALEX: _

Alex sighs as she sits down in her fine arts class, pulling out her sketchbook to draw one of the objects that the teacher laid out in front of her. She goes to flip to a blank page but freezes when she sees the photo booth picture of her and Emily taped to the inside. Quickly grabbing the photo she shoves it into her pocket. Looking around the classroom as it begins to fill up wondering if anyone saw it.

Seeing that no one is looking her way, she carefully looks through the rest of her book making sure its clear of any more pictures. When she's sure it clean, she takes a deep calming breath before opening up to a clean piece of paper and sketching out a small statue of a Nome that is in front of her.

_END OF SCHOOL: _

Alex lays in the front seat of her jeep renegade, with the seat layed all the way bac in the school parking lot, blasting Starstrukk by 3OH!3 as she waits for Emily, having made plans to meet up with one another after school in lunch.

Alex jumps at the sound of someone knocking on her window, quickly sitting up she sees Emily standing there. Quickly turning down the music and moving her seat back to the upright position as Emily walks to the other side of the car and gets in.

"Hey." Alex says "You okay?" she asks seeing the worried look on the swimmers face

"Yea its just…" Emily says "I found this in my chemistry book today." She says as she pulls the photo booth picture out of her bag and hands it to the green eyed girl.

"I got one too." Alex says as she hands the swimmer her photo from her pocket "It was in my sketch book."

"Who do you think it is?" Emily asks hoping that the other girl wont say who they are both thinking.

"It has to be A" Alex says "I know we blocked them but I don't think it makes a difference."

"I was hoping you weren't going to say that." Emily says with a sigh as she leans her head back into the head rest.

"Look Em, I know you're not ready to come out to anyone yet and I'm not going to push you" Alex says "But maybe you should tell at least your parents the girls. That way whoever the hell this freak is wont be able to use this against you."

"Yea right…have you met my parents?" Emily says

"Okay then what about the girls?" Alex asks "Em they love you, they wont think of you any differently." She says, Emily lets out a sigh and nods her head.

"Can we just go somewhere?" Emily asks

"Yea sure. Where like your house? Mine?"

"Mine is fine…Moms not going to be home till later."

"Your house it is." Alex says as she throws her car into drive and drives off.

"So do you want anything to eat or drink?" Emily asks as she leads the brunette into her home

"No I'm good." Alex says as she looks around at all the photos "So what do you want to do?" she asks as she turns to look at Emily who has been watching her from where she stands by the door.

"We could um watch a movie." Emily says, Alex nods

"Sounds good."

"Okay I'll make popcorn and you go pick out a movie." Emily says "Their in the cabinet underneath the Tv."

Alex nods as she goes over to the Tv in the living room and starts to look for something to watch while Emily makes popcorn.

A few minutes later Emily comes back to find Alex sitting on the couch watching the previews to the movie.

"What are we watching?" the swimmer asks as she takes a seat

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

"Good choice." Emily says the two girls smile at each other. Alex sighs and takes off her leather jacket, trying to get comfortable.

About halfway into the movie Emily leans into the brunette, Alex smiles and wraps her arm around the swimmer. Emily bites her lip and intertwines her fingers with the hand on her shoulder.

"When did you get this?" Emily asks spotting the tattoo on Alex's wrist, having not seen it before since the girl mostly wears long sleeves or a jacket.

"About a month or two after Alison went missing." Alex says trying not to shift uncomfortably

"I like it. Its very you." Emily says as she looks at the tattoo of the black butterfly that has a skull on its wings and looks like it has red paint dripping out of the wings. Emily turns and smiles at the brunette, both girls slowly leaning closer until their lips meet in a gentle yet passionate kiss.

The two girls jump apart when they hear the sound of keys in the lock, Pam walks into the house to see Emily and Alex sitting on either side of the couch.

"Hey mom." Emily says hoping that her face isn't red from the kiss

"Hey girls." Pam says as she closes the door behind her "If I would have known we were having company I would have bought more." She says as she holds up the Chinese food bags she was carrying.

"Oh no its okay." Alex says "I was just leaving… I have some homework I have to finish." She says as she grabs her jacket. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Emily says with a small nod, Alex gives her a smile before heading towards the door.

"It was nice seeing you Mrs. Fields."

"Nice to see you too Alex." Pam calls before Alex walks out.

Alex just gets into her car when she sees something on her windshield, getting out she walks to the front and removes the paper.

' **If only she knew what that tattoo hid- A'**

Alex looks around but doesn't find anything out of the ordinary, quickly crumbling up the piece of paper she gets back into her car and drives off.

_NEXT DAY: _

The next day the girls are all gathered in a circle in their English class as they wait for their class to start, listening to Hanna as she talks about her night out with her dad.

"It was great. Incredible, really." Hanna says with a large smile

"Where'd your dad take you" Emily asks

"Jolly Roger's."

"What the lame amusement park?" Alex asks as the rest of the girl's laugh

"Okay, it is not lame." Hanna defends, the smile never leaving her face. "We didn't go on the tilt-a-whirl. We walked around and talked." She says "And I told him about what's going on." Seeing the looks on her friends faces she quickly corrects herself "Some of what's going on, and he listened." She says "He wants to take me to a real dinner tonight. He said he has something to tell me. I don't know, I think he wants to spend more time with me. I mean, maybe summers in Maryland."

"Seriously?" Emma asks

"Would you go?" Aria asks

"Well, I wouldn't move away, not forever." Hanna says "I don't want to leave my mom alone but… I would like to see my dad more." She confesses

"Wow." Spencer says

"Good for you." Aria adds, as they all take their seats when the bell rings. Mr. Fitz walks in and begins a discussion on Atticus's hypocrisy. Alex watches as Fitz starts to get more and more worked up as the discussion moves along, almost as if there was a personal undertone to it between him and Aria. She raises both eye brows in surprise as their usually laid back teacher practically rips some kids head off when he argues with Aria's statement.

_LATER THAT NIGHT: _

Alex sighs as she walks into her house, feeling the need to clear her head and not wanting to drink after her drunken hallucinated promise to Alison, she runs upstairs to her room and changes into her running clothes before walking out. She starts out in a light jog before speeding up into a run, as she thinks back to why she decided to get a butterfly tattoo.

 __FLASHBACK: __

 _Alison and Alex lay in the field in the middle of the woods, having wanted to get away from everyone. Alison sits up and crosses her legs, turning so she's looking at her lover._

" _What?" Alex asks seeing her stare as she sits up on her elbows_

" _If you could be anything what would you be?" the blonde asks_

" _What?" Alex asks again with a laugh, the question coming out of the blue_

" _It's a question…if you could be anything what would it be?"_

" _Um I don't know…. I'd have to say a dog." Alex says "They always seem happy plus, they get to sleep all day." She says smiling when the blonde laughs "What about you?"_

" _I would be a butterfly." Alison says "I think they're beautiful and they can fly wherever they want…" she says thoughtfully_

" _After we graduate from High school I'll take you wherever you want." Alex says, Alison turns and looks at her with a smile._

" _Really?"_

" _Of course…besides its not like I don't have the money for it."_

 __END OF FLASHBACK: __

Alex is pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing, stopping she pulls out her phone to see she got a text from Spencer.

' **S.O.S'**

Looking around to see she's about 5 minutes from Spencer's house she takes off. She arrives at the same time as Aria and Spencer did.

"Do you know what's going on?" Alex asks, out of breath. The other girls shake their head no as they walk up to the door and knock. Spencer opens it and leads them upstairs to her room.

The five girls all stand in the room, staring at a mirror that has writing all over it.

' **I wont be that easy bitches- A'** it says in what looks like red lipstick

"Is that jungle red?" Hanna asks as they step closer

"That's Alison's color." Alex says

The girls just stand there, staring at the mirror. Freaked out that someone, A, broke into Spencer's house, knew Alison's shade of lipstick and they had no idea who the hell is doing this.


End file.
